Playtime with elflings
by LaurielS
Summary: It is Erestor's first playtime with the twins. Awkwardness and rule-breaking ensues. Who would be blamed in the end? Reviews and comments are highly appreciated.


**Playtime with elflings**

A/N: Aaaaand back to humour stories again :) Here's one with the twins. Hopefully it will bring the smile to your faces :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or anything, just my own ideas.

**Playtime with elflings**

Erestor stared grimly at the two elflings sitting in front of him. Two pairs of beady black eyes stared straight back at him.

Erestor had never dealt with elflings on such a personal scale. True, he had taught many elflings in his lifetime and had seen them grown into warriors, advisors, clerks et cetera, but he had never played or interacted with them outside their studies.

Erestor extended his hand to one of the elflings tentatively. The elfling flinched a little and edged a little closer to his brother.

He really did not know how to deal with them. He never had younger siblings, would not be having elflings himself anytime soon (if ever) and had only a small circle of friends who were certainly not elflings. Erestor wondered once more what had possessed him to agree with Elrond that he needed to get acquainted with possibly the future lords of Imladris alone, without Elrond's, Celebrian's or Glorfindel's (the Balrog slayer had somehow convinced the elflings that he was harmless) help. It was then that he remembered the bet he had with Elrond that if he could get close to the elflings, a bottle of Miruvor would be his. It had been very tempting indeed. And this was excluding one week's holiday that Elrond had promised him should he get this elfling-sitting job done whilst he attended to some 'family matters' with Celebrian.

_Family matters indeed_, thought Erestor wryly, _as if I did not know better._

He looked once more at the elflings, who had suddenly quietened down when he arrived. Both were currently just staring up at him, waiting, unfortunately not very excited about the chief counsellor. At this sight, Erestor realized that he wasn't in that a desperate need of Miruvor or a holiday to do this…monstrosity. He was about to leave the room when he suddenly realized that he would never live down Glorfindel's taunts that he, chief advisor of Imladris who had scolded almost everyone including their lord before, was afraid of small children.

With a sigh, he turned and face the elflings again, who had become bored of the staring game. One elfling's eyes started wondering about the room and finally rested on the toy box in the corner of the room.

_Yes, toys. Toys would… mm… do the trick_, thought Erestor uncertainly, though personally, he wasn't one for toys, even when he was younger.

With that, he walked to the corner of the room and dragged the box out of its corner and to the elflings. He had heard from Glorfindel that both of them liked to 'spar' with each other using their toy weapons and so proceeded to draw out two toy swords from the box.

The two elflings watched on.

"Elladan, would you like to play?"

The elfling gave no reply, though Erestor was sure that he understood what he was saying perfectly. The chattier of the two always had something to say (or scream about) when it came to playtime. Erestor wondered privately to himself if it was because he had almost strangled the young elfling when he was born when he had apparently handled the new born wrongly, much to Elrond's and Celebrian's horror. Yet it was totally not his fault, he reasoned. He had warned Elrond before he took the newborn that he had never been trained in this area before but still that Elf lord insisted that he try. Even now, he wasn't sure if Elrond was in his right mind then to insist on handing an inexperienced advisor who had never handled elflings below the age of 5 amidst his own protests his firstborn and the heir of the Lord of Imladris.

If the elfling had anything to grudge, it should be his father, not him.

"Elrohir, would you like to play?" Erestor tried again, this time addressing the other elfling. No reply again.

Since neither elfling felt like answering his questions, he gave up asking and just offered them the toy swords. Elladan looked at him before considering the sword he was holding. He scrutinized Erestor for a long time, before being finally satisfied that the elf in front of him was not threatening his life as his hand approached the sword and finally grasped it. His brother quickly followed suit.

With the two toy swords in their hands, the two twins began sparring, tentatively at first, but seeing that the elf in front of them made no attempts to stop them, they sparred on happily.

Erestor sat and watched the elflings scramble around, trying to reach each other without the other touching him. His heart temporarily stopped as he saw Elladan climbed up his table and jumped down when his brother's sword made a swipe at him. This was quickly followed by Elrohir missing the leg of the bed by a few millimeters and Elladan almost tripping and crashing into the toy box, which Erestor had since moved back to its corner. He wondered how Elrond, the father and the healer, would react if he saw his boys now, doing all the dangerous tactics that Elrond would surely not approve. And then he suddenly saw the danger of that happening and quickly channeled his energy to thinking of ways to prevent Elrond from knowing about this.

A sudden light poke in his knee brought him back to the room. He looked down and saw little Elladan trying his best to poke him with his toy sword. Apparently the twins had decided that chasing each other wasn't as fun as annoying an adult, and Elladan had taken the initiative to attack Erestor. Erestor looked at Elladan's determined face and became sure that he must have remembered the strangling incident. He had never seen a child so determined before.

Erestor didn't know what to do. Should he pretend to be stabbed? Or should he play back? Before he could think of anything, however, Elrohir had joined in the fray and he was now being attacked by two small elflings waving their swords at him.

"Die, Dragon!" pronounced Elladan, as majestically as a four-year-old equivalent of a child could.

What, dragon?! Erestor looked at himself in a mirror nearby. He didn't look like a dragon! But the small Lord had spoken, and he had to comply…

Erestor tried his best to give a roar before he lay down on the floor dramatically, but an accidental punch by Elrohir drove out his breath and the roar turned into a tiny squeak. Elladan laughed at Erestor's impersonation, and Elrohir was absolutely delighted that he had delivered the 'fatal' stroke to the dragon.

Before the dragon had time to take a short breather, however, it found itself 'reincarnated' as the captain of a ship, floundering beneath a great captain's hat and sailing a ship—in a chocolate river with candies on each side, as Elrohir proclaimed. Erestor had hoped the ship to be sailing across the sky so that he could convince himself that at least one of the twins had some knowledge of lore and their heritage from the books that were read to them during bedtime, but no, he had hoped too much. As the captain watched one of his charge eyeing him for candy hungrily, he decided that spoiling them with treats for one day would not hurt and would make the elflings and the kitchen crew very happy indeed. And so, much to the delight of the elflings, Erestor brought them to the kitchens to hunt for sweet pastries.

Well, if Celebrian had anything to say to that, he would make sure to push all the blame to Elrond. It was he, after all, who had made him spend time with the twins amidst his own protests—again. He was just an innocent advisor following orders.

_**Should there be another chapter?**_


End file.
